Hello. I've got a few questions about ginseng that maybe you more experienced guys can help me with.

First off, I've never sold any ginseng. Last week while on vacation, I spent some time hiking the woods. On Wednesday I came across what seems like a decent patch of ginseng. There were numerous plants that had 3-4 prongs. There were a few 2 prongs and also some plants that were very young. I guess they would be called 1-prongs.

I ended up digging 3 of the bigger plants and they seemed to have decent roots.

My questions are....Should I dig the bigger plants? or leave them until the price of ginseng goes up? There are roughly 20 3-4 prongs. The roots I dug, were from one 4prong and 2 3prongs, and the 3-prongs were bigger than the 4. I'm going to attach the pictures


of the roots I dug. Maybe someone could critique my digging and give me some advice on wether to leave it or dig it, and tell me if the roots I dug are the kind of ginseng that buyers like. Thank you in advance for any help. The ginseng I dug has been drying since Wednesday.

my first words of advice would be to check your state laws ...every state has different regs as far as size of plant, amount allowed, liscense requirements etc, whom to sell to, possession etc.

with that being said.....it appears you've found some nice seng and did a pretty good job of digging it..the bigger the seng, the better the price. the 3 and 4 prong plants I would most cert take if state laws permitted, but def leave the 2 prong stuff. although the 2 prong plants sometimes have roots comparable to 3 prong plants........usually there gonna be immature , dry up to nothing, and not legal to dig. here in il we can only dig 3 prong or bigger seng. the choice of wanting to dig now or wait til the market improves is entirely up to you......maybe it'll be better next year.....maybe it wont..

Thank you. My state allows me to dig it if it has at least 3 prongs. I think I'm going to dig some more of the 3 and 4 prongs and leave some of them there. There seems to be quite a variety of sizes.

Harvest only the mature plants and leave the rest.

I harvested a few of the bigger plants today.

I would like to see some pictures that are clearer. Something about that seng that bothers me.It don't look to be the big barrel roots that should be on 3 or 4 prong seng. The roots are awfully long and rather poor looking roots. I have never honestly seen any New York Ginseng but our Indiana root looks a lot different than those roots. Our 4 and 3 prong seng has roots that are as big around as a quarter with some bigger and some a little smaller ,but the body of the root is a lot bigger and shorter than those roots.

Don, thank you for responding. I will try to get better pictures, my phone's camera is not very good. Like I said, I do not know much about ginseng. What I do know is that you have to be careful digging the root and you have to properly care for the root after its dug and you have to be sure to plant the berries from the plants.

Where I dug this is extremely rocky. Maybe that has something to do with it? I'm not real sure.

What ever you do, don't over wash your roots, but don't under wash them either. They don't want seng to be scrubbed to where the root is white, but they also don't want it all gray colored because of dirt. The ideal color on seng when dry is kind of a golden brown color with dirt left in the rings of the root.

Thank you for the advice don. I posted a couple pictures of some roots I dug today. Also in the one picture, there are actually 5 3prongs in about a 5ft circle.

looks like your doin a great job diggin em, gonna take a whole bunch more to make some weight tho lol.

Imiller, I've dug close to 60 roots this past week. I've also left at least half of what I found, to grow some more. Started at 7am today. Walked until 2pm when I left for work.according to my GPS, I walked just over 10miles. I dug a bunch of ginseng. Found some mushrooms. Here are some pictures of my day.

A couple pictures of some of the bigger roots I dug.

Some more pictures from today. Gotta love the fall. Now I just have to get through the 13hr shift I am working tonight! Can't complain though. Im lucky to be able to live in an area where I can walk out my back door and wander around all day without any boundaries. Lucky to have a wife who doesn't complain about my extra curricular activities! Lucky to live in this great country also!

very nice! you got some stringy buggers up there thats for sure

That last picture is a bad picture of a good hen of the woods(sheepshead)
Pretty much spent the last few weeks in the woods. I have some pictures of my 3 girls who usually come with me when they are not in school. Mostly spend all day Sundays in the woods. We pack a lunch and snacks and drinks and make a day of it. They love exploring the different caves and rock ledges. I'll post some pictures of them in a bit. I can definitely say that I am not going to let this fall pass us by.

My little one is ready to go!

I really need to get a new phone! Wish the pictures were better quality. Anyhow, I have one more week of vacation to take. Sure do enjoy digging ginseng and mushroom hunting. Someday I will be able to identify more than morels, chicken, and hens. Until then, I'll just stick with those 3. We got lucky one day, my middle daughter came home from school and said she needed to bring a ginseng leaf in the next day. We set out to find one,and just before dark, we found a nice 4-prong.

I love that picture of you little girl by herself. She looks like she is ready to hit the timber. Get your wife into the woods with you also. I loved to take my wife to the woods with me. She just loved looking at all the flowers and mushrooms in the woods. Sure miss that.

Thank you Don. I'm sure that you do miss your wife.

My wife comes with me sometimes. She's got her gun, bow, and trapping courses that she took with me. She is a busy woman, so a lot of the time I take my girls with me. It is a good break for her.

I was wondering, when is the latest Time that you guys have found ginseng? There have been quite a few plants that are not even visible. For example, I had marked a spot that I knew had 3 4prongs. I went back the next day to dig them, and it took me over an hour to find them. I finally found a dried out leave and a stalk. That was all that was left from 3 plants.

im seein nice green plants, some just startin to turn, some golden yellow, and some dried stalks right now. i dont figure itll be long and theyll be done for the year here. found 1 today with a few berries still hangin on.

Thank you imiller. I was able to get out for 2 hrs or so today. I saw a lot of plants still green. Probably 25%-35% of them were yellow. It seems that they are much easier to find when they are yellow. I did notice that there were a few that have dropped all their leaves. It's interesting to me About a half mile away from the spot I was today, there are no more visible plants. I made it a point to walk through the spot where I know there were numerous plants. I saw a few dried up leaves and that's all. Where I dug today, there were lots of plants still green. I do not know what causes this. Using my best hypothesis, I would say it has something to do with the amount of sunlight. Anyway, it was a beautiful day today. The perfect fall day if you ask me.

Oh, and I have a new iPhone that is in the process of being activated. So hopefully no more blurry pictures.

I have found a very very few plants the 1st week of November. That is very rare though and mostly found them very low in a valley.